NASA Targets Edwards Air Force Base for Discovery Landing

Mission Control calls off a Florida landing after the same unstable weather that forced NASA to postpone a Sept. 10 touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center continues to plague the East Coast site. After passing once on a Florida landing Sept. 11, Discovery is now shooting for Edwards Air Force Base in California.

NASA officials Sept. 11 scratched the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a
landing site for the space shuttle Discovery and decided to target California's
Edwards Air Force Base for an 8:53 p.m. EDT
landing. The same stormy East Coast weather that delayed Discovery's scheduled
Sept. 10 landing forced the change of landing sites.

Throughout most of the day, NASA was still hoping for a Florida
landing, but after the weather forced Mission Control to call a no-go for the
first of two Cape Canaveral landing windows, NASA
switched to Edwards Air Force Base. The de-orbit burn is now set to begin at 7:47 p.m. EDT
for the landing at Edwards. The burn lasts 3 to 4 minutes, slowing Discovery
enough to begin its descent.

"Basically we have a very unstable day at the Kennedy
Space Center,"
said mission commentator Rob Navias on NASA TV.

Discovery is returning from a resupply mission to the ISS (International Space
Station). During eight and a half days
docked at the space station, the Discovery's crew delivered and unpacked more
than seven tons of supplies, science racks and equipment, as well as additional
environmental hardware to sustain six crew members on the orbital outpost.
Discovery is returning to Earth with more than 5,000 pounds of trash, surplus
items and scientific experiments.

Over the course of three spacewalks,
the Discovery crew replaced a large coolant tank and retrieved experiments from
the station's hull, in addition to completing minor repair jobs.

The mission also marked a crew change at the space station, with NASA astronaut
Nicole Stott replacing American Tim Kopra, who completed a two-month tour of
duty aboard the ISS. Stott is scheduled for a three-month stay.